Fishing Day
by Moosashi
Summary: <html><head></head>It's fall of his first year in Kardia and thus far Raguna has enjoyed all the festivals and holidays. Fishing Day has rolled around, and he has to admit that he is quite perplexed by everyone's negligence of it. Still, fishing is a favorite hobby of his and he isn't about to let his day be ruined. Some unexpected company might just brighten things up.</html>


A.N. Howdy all! Hope you enjoy this short story. I'll have more to say in the ending notes.

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><p>He didn't quite understand why it was designated so late in fall, but he reckoned that could easily be the reason why nobody held any interest in it. As he sat on the pier with a blanket draped around his shoulders, he realized he couldn't blame them. The sky was quilted over, the beach empty, and the water sloshing about amidst sporadic tinseled ice patches. Would he even catch anything?<p>

He laid his fishing rod on his lap and rubbed his hands together. Exhaling into them after cupping them together generated meager warmth. It'd already been an hour and he hadn't had a single bite, so perhaps packing up and heading back would—the rod suddenly flung itself onto the pier and skidded towards the edge. "Whoa~!" In the ensuing scramble to reclaim it, Raguna leapt forward and nearly off the pier. He breathed a quick sigh of relief as he lay on his stomach, head over the edge and gaze peering into the water below; standing and yanking back on the fishing rod with all his might, he soon found himself lying on his flipside and staring into the face of a foreigner. He blinked, twice.

A smacking noise drew his attention momentarily to a large salmon flopping some distance from him, its mouth pierced by the rod's hook.

"I didn't expect you to take my suggestion so seriously."

He turned his attention upright once more, suddenly caught in her ever-stern visage. He smiled. "I decided to try it. Turns out that I love it." If only slightly, Mei's brow relaxed, and with a huff she stepped over him and plopped down on the edge of the pier.

He sat up with haste and plucked from the hook his prized catch.

"Decent catch," she stated while casting out her own line. "Must have gotten lucky."

He exhaled a single laugh while dropping the fish into a pail. It immediately began to swim around in circles in the shallow water. "I guess." Craning his head back and staring into the gray sky, he pondered aloud, "With winter right around the corner, I can't imagine there'd be many fish near the shore."

She jerked her arms, her fishing rod rising into the air and pulling with it a short string tipped with a small flailing mackerel. Specks of water struck her face and left trails on her cheeks, but she seemed unfazed. Her concentrated gaze examined the catch as she pulled it from the hook and dropped it into her own pail. "Don't be absurd. Fishing is year-round."

"Is that right?" He waited not for her reply. "Still, if it were earlier in fall or summer, there might be more people."

Her rebuttal came quickly. "Fishing is meant to be enjoyed in silence and solitude. This day is aptly named."

He could only laugh weakly. "Is that so…?"

"It is."

Pursuing it no further, he joined her at the edge of the pier. Her sudden stare unnerved him, and moments after he cast out his line, it had become so overbearing that he snapped his eyes shut. "Wh-what?"

"Did I not just explain that fishing is meant to be enjoyed in solitude?"

He fidgeted. "Well, that's…" he opened his eyes with newfound determination and put all his attention on the bobber dipping in and out of the shallow waves below.

Her stern stare lingered for a bit longer, but soon melted into excited eyes and a small smile. Her attention returned to the water.

With the lapping of the waves, occasional creaking of the pier, and soft howl of the wind, the two of them looked to be in their own worlds—together, but separated, like two unacquainted fishermen simply enjoying a pastime. And because of that, it came as a surprise to him when she broke the boundary between their worlds with a question:

"How are things going?"

But he was thankful that she did so. "Rather well. The farm is bringing in a steady income, and Mist is really happy that I've finally gotten the entire field plowed, even if it's not all being used." He pulled in his line.

She scoffed. "Wasted work. She's a bit of a ditz, isn't she?"

He had been about ready to recast the line, but paused. A sudden seriousness overtook his features. "Maybe it's my fault."

"I heard she's always been like that."

"I think I've been giving her the wrong vibe."

"A ditz interprets things as always being beneficial to whatever goal they have in their wayward mind." She ushered for him to recast his line, and he did so, but then paused, his grip on the fishing rod lax.

"I asked her to Moonlight Eve."

The sound of something dropping caught his attention. He turned to see her downcast gaze on the pail beside her, body unmoving and hand still outreached over the top of it. Her head whirled around and their eyes met. "And?"

Surprised, he shrunk and stammered, "W-well, I think she took it…you know, romantically."

One of her eyebrows rose. "That would be customary."

"I didn't know, though!" He took a deep breath. "Sure, she did mention that before I asked her to go, but…"

Her attention went back to the ocean and she cast out her line. "A ditz and a ditz naturally make a good pair."

He sighed. "She asked if I like her." A slight tug on his line went unnoticed. "I wish I had noticed sooner…" again he sighed, "…because things will get awkward if I turn her down now."

"That's one situation that could turn awkward." Her statement pulled him from his woes, but, "Don't worry about it too much, because everywhere you look there's another situation that could," soon sent him right back into them full force.

"Ah, what?"

Her legs began to kick playfully. "That shop girl who picks up your crops every day, she likes you. Mist is her best friend. That's one other situation that is sure to turn awkward. That hot springs girl with the funny hat also has her eye on you. If that other farm boy ever finds out, things would become awkward as well."

His head drooped. "Small town curse…" His fishing rod suddenly pulled forward and he nearly lost grip on it. "Big one!" His exclamation couldn't be truer, for he had to stand and use all of his weight to pull it in; he wasn't just overdoing it this time, either. Once it was out of the water, he gave a sigh of relief that abruptly hitched. The fish was pink—hot pink, to be exact—and large to boot. He pulled the string closer, removed the hook from the fish's mouth, and dropped it into the pail, all the while oblivious to the uncharacteristically gaping girl beside him whose stare followed the fish through the motions.

"Th-that's…"

Her stammering apparently went unheard, for he stood and collected his things. Staring at the town, he mused, "If only there were someone quiet and reserved like me out there." He looked down at her with a smile. "I think a girl like that and I could really get along." He held out his pail to her. "Here, as thanks for the company." Her shaky hands reached up and took it by either side, and with that he nodded his farewell and took off.

She sat there for quite some time staring into the pail. The large pink fish captivated her, and for a moment her mind began to wander and her face turned ten shades of red. "You really are a ditz…"

In the pail atop her lap, the Lover Snapper bit into the salmon, and a fierce struggle began.

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><p>A.N. Poor Raguna and his subpar fishing knowledge, he doesn't even know what he caught! I guess that goes for him not knowing what it means for Mei to receive that as well. Ah well.<p>

Originally this was going to be a story about Raguna's ridiculous attempts to try and court Mei, for wooing her in the game takes all sorts of absurd work and many thrown fish and rice balls. However, someone already has written that! And they did a darn good job at it too. And so here we have Raguna enjoying his day with unexpected company on a holiday that nobody else in the town cares about: Fishing Day. Anyways, hope you enjoyed it! Thanks for reading!


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